Our very first Green Coco expedition teacher was Libby.  She’s originally from Texas, has worked in Montessori school, and has been recently traveling the world.  

She was aboard Selavi, our 46ft catamaran, for 3 months in French Polynesia. This was our last stretch of time aboard Selavi, before smoving onto our new 60ft Expedition catamaran, Nesi. We had been living in Polynesia for 7 years, ever since arriving here on the Green Coconut Run, our first community expedition (read more about it on Nat Geo, NPR, and Seven Seas magazine)

Libby helped us launch our boat-school program during this time.  These 3 months were a preparation for our upcoming world schooling expedition which begins aboard Nesi in March 2024 in Seychelles. (read more about it in our blog posts)

In the previous 3 years we had nannies helping us with the kids, but this was the first time we had a trained teacher aboard. Our aim was to integrate pre-school education into the wild ride that is boat life!

(Interested in being an expedition teacher on Green Coco? Apply here).

What does the day-to-day look? Life aboard a sailboat fluctuates between 3 extremes: from blissful enjoyment of dreamy islands, to the radical intensity of offshore sailing, to the chaos of boat repairs & maintenance. 

Ups & downs are magnified on sailboat life. One moment we’re enjoying an unforgettable sunset with dolphins; the next moment people are seasick in rough seas; then we’re at an idyllic anchorage but a rainstorm comes in and hatches leak while sleeping. Or we’re tripping over each other and piles of tools & spare parts while repairing things. On a sailboat, the highs are extra amazing, and the lows are extra challenging.

Since we run co-op sailing trips with Green Coco, we hosted a group of 5 members over three weeks sailing between all the Society Islands. We left Tahiti, stopping in Moorea, Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, and sailing all the way to Bora-Bora. And then we came back upwind, which was tougher! These islands are incredibly famous for good reason — their natural beauty is incomparable in the whole world.

With the exception of offshore sailing days (which are just focused on staying comfortable) we try to have a consistent daily schedule. 8am is breakfast and 9am-2pm it is pre school time, which means either heading to the beach, learning aboard the boat, or visiting places in town like Maison de l’Enfance (a DIY type of pre-school space available here, read more here). In the afternoon our onboard teacher has a few hours break, then helps out again around dinner time. There’s also time off every week for a nice recharge. 

During these three months, we were also preparing Selavi for sale. This meant doing a lot of repairs and maintenance on every spare moment. Libby helped us juggle all this while caring for the girls and their daily education.

One of the greatest lessons from boat life is the ability to rapidly adapt to any changing circumstance, and be able to stay calm, centered, and positive throughout all the ups & downs. Maintaining this good energy aboard is super important for crew chemistry. This is basically the difference between a good and bad time for all. This is even more important with toddlers, who magnify emotions very intensely.

Thankfully Libby came to us with a well-developed meditation practice which helped her stay present and even-keeled throughout all the amazing or challenging moments. Dealing with kids in this ever-changing environment can be really tricky, and those who can do it gracefully reflect an extraordinary sense of self-awareness.

Libby embraced the RIE philosophy that we use aboard the boat, which helps the kids enormously (and as a result, the rest of us!) RIE stands for “resources for infant edu-caring”. This is all about empowering kids in each moment, staying present with their needs, and making each experience a learning opportunity. The result is helping the kids develop emotional intelligence, which is arguably the most important attribute we can offer them at this stage in life.

An additional note: RIE is very similar to NonViolent Communication (NVC), but applied to infants & toddlers. Using tools similar to NVC, the RIE philosophy helps develop empowered, independent, and emotional intelligent kids. Read more about it in our previous post here.

In terms of activities, the girls really appreciated Libby’s artistic bent. Her creativity with various arts & crafts was a huge plus — using egg cartons, rocks, shells, sand, cardboard boxes, along with the mish-mash of paints and markers we have aboard. Libby was super effective at adapting to the daily needs and constraints of the boat and our ever-changing locations. 

Here are Libby’s thoughts on the experience, along with a rundown of some of the activities she did with the girls – which might be of interest to other school teachers and home-schooling sailors. Cheers, Capt K

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[below is Libby’s take on her Green Coco time]

Working aboard Selavi has been a one of a kind experience. This is every traveling teacher’s dream! Having the freedom to create STEAM-focused lessons in a beautiful environment where outdoor education is highly valued… What more could I ask for?

(STEAM Education is an approach to learning that uses Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics as access points for guiding student inquiry, dialogue, and critical thinking. Read more about it here.)

Non Violent Communication is extremely important to me. Being a part of a community that values this form of communication with children and adults alike encourages me to choose future jobs that align with my values.

As their guide, I encouraged Kaiana and Naiyah  to express their creativity freely, and if something piqued their interest we would explore that topic further. This has been a great reflection for me to express my own creativity, and in these 3 months aboard I have made my personal creative outlets a top priority in my life. Thank you Kristian and Sabrina for this opportunity, all the laughs, life lessons, and everything in between. 

Love, Libby 

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[below is Libby’s list of teaching activities to share with others]

Food/Nutrients Lesson

Learning goal: well-balanced meals and nutrition. 

Action: We made a food chart with 5 main categories: proteins, fruits, veggies, grains, and dairy. We reviewed this chart together, and went over the main functions for each category. We hung the chart in a place the girls can always see it. At meal times, we talk about the food they are eating and ask questions like “What food category is that a apart of? Do you know what function this food provides for your body?” These questions lead to a deeper understanding of the importance of a well balanced meal. The girls now have a sticker chart for tracking the nutrients they get. The goal is to put a sticker in every category, every day of the week.

Facial Expressions & Emotion Lesson

Learning goal: recognize different emotions and expand vocabulary to help better express how they are feeling.

Action: We cut out cardboard circles and painted them together. Once dry, we drew a different face on each circle and reviewed the faces together. We hung the faces where they could see them, and when future emotions arose we would ask, “Which emotion are you feeling? Can you show me on the chart?”

From this activity, the girls began expressing interest in drawing different faces, which added form and detail to their drawings and creations.

Tweezer Activity

Learning goal: Strengthen fine motor skills and control, and practice categorizing

Materials: Tweezers, various cups, and small objects that can be picked up easily with tweezers (I found that the small rubber band hair ties worked the best.) 

Action: The girls pick up the objects with the tweezers and categorize them by color into the cups.

Q-Tip Painting Activity:

Learning goal: practice fine motor skills, learn how to hold a writing tool properly and work with tracing various shapes and symbols.

Materials: Q-tips, paint to dip them in, paper with various tracings.

Action: Teacher draws shapes onto the paper (fireworks, smiley faces, stars, anchors, numbers, and letters). The girls then trace the drawings with their Q-tips, dipping it into paint every so often.

…And many other Activities:

• Use of a microscope, identifying various objects of interest under the microscope.
• Learning maps for oceans/continents
• Teaching and practicing knots with boat lines
• Beach days:
  • Writing letters and words in the sand
  • observing animals around and learning about them
• Using cardboard for endless activities. The girls love to cut, construct, build, paint, and draw on the cardboard. They have opportunity to use their imagination and have creative freedom to choose what they would like to create with the cardboard. (Examples: “gingerbread” houses, ornaments, flowers, story dice, robot outfits, Christmas trees, paper dolls). 

• Painting with chunky paints. Experimented with different color combinations, textures, and creative freedom.
• Started working on our project folders. The girls use their project folders to have a safe and official place to keep their completed work. This brings them a sense of pride in their work and wanting to preserve it, as well as document their progress. As they decorated their folders, they worked on spelling their names and letter recognition.
• Scissor work: the girls have been extremely interested in cutting up bits of paper and cardboard. They have been learning how to hold scissors properly and cut paper independently. 
• Story dice: we take turns creating stories using various symbols on homemade card board dice.

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[More ideas for learning activities]

Letters and numbers:

• Read books (with or without leap reader pens)
• Sound out letters, phonetics
• Number identification/recognition
• Reading a clock (made one with snack, meal, and nap times)
• Creating stories together and writing down their stories
• Typing on the keyboard

Music:

• Singing/nursery rhymes in both French and English
• Harmonica
• Drums
• Sound makers (practice animal sounds)

Cooking:

• Cutting/knife skills, involve them in cooking and baking
• Nutrition (creation of the poster with food families)
• Food prep
• Mixing
• Baking
• Bread/dough
• (All of these activities under cooking work great for french lessons as well)

Games:

• Cards
• Marbles
• Balls, bowling
• Hide and Seek
• Puzzles
• Seek n find books
• Matching/memory games
• Dress up
• Sensory bins
• Collect nature/make art
• Moving letters from “Bananagrams” game to start creating words and sounding out letters 

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That’s it for now!

Our next teacher aboard is Zoe from Corsica (France) and she’ll be with us during the transition from Tahiti to Seychelles.

Cheers, Capt K